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Bauer R, Jansen P. A short mindfulness induction might increase women's mental rotation performance. Conscious Cogn 2024; 123:103721. [PMID: 39053185 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2024.103721] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2024] [Revised: 06/15/2024] [Accepted: 06/19/2024] [Indexed: 07/27/2024]
Abstract
The study aimed to investigate the effects of an embodied mindfulness treatment on chronometric mental rotation. Forty-four women and 47 men participated and were randomly divided into two groups: a mindfulness induction group and a control group. They completed two sets of 150 mental rotation tasks with cube figures each. Subjective cognitive effort (measured after each block), reaction time, and accuracy were analyzed using linear mixed models with the factors of time, mindfulness, angular disparity, and gender. The significant finding was a three-way interaction between pre-post testing, mindfulness, and gender for reaction times. This interaction suggests that women might benefit more from the mindfulness induction, while men may benefit more from the control condition. The analysis of subjective cognitive effort indicates that women and men perceive the same cognitive effort when solving cube-figure tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Robert Bauer
- Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany.
| | - Petra Jansen
- Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
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Ziereis A, Schacht A. Validation of scrambling methods for vocal affect bursts. Behav Res Methods 2024; 56:3089-3101. [PMID: 37673809 PMCID: PMC11133081 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-023-02222-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/14/2023] [Indexed: 09/08/2023]
Abstract
Studies on perception and cognition require sound methods allowing us to disentangle the basic sensory processing of physical stimulus properties from the cognitive processing of stimulus meaning. Similar to the scrambling of images, the scrambling of auditory signals is aimed at creating stimulus instances that are unrecognizable but have comparable low-level features. In the present study, we generated scrambled stimuli of short vocalizations taken from the Montreal Affective Voices database (Belin et al., Behav Res Methods, 40(2):531-539, 2008) by applying four different scrambling methods (frequency-, phase-, and two time-scrambling transformations). The original stimuli and their scrambled versions were judged by 60 participants for the apparency of a human voice, gender, and valence of the expressions, or, if no human voice was detected, for the valence of the subjective response to the stimulus. The human-likeness ratings were reduced for all scrambled versions relative to the original stimuli, albeit to a lesser extent for phase-scrambled versions of neutral bursts. For phase-scrambled neutral bursts, valence ratings were equivalent to those of the original neutral burst. All other scrambled versions were rated as slightly unpleasant, indicating that they should be used with caution due to their potential aversiveness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Annika Ziereis
- Department for Cognition, Emotion and Behavior, Affective Neuroscience and Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany.
| | - Anne Schacht
- Department for Cognition, Emotion and Behavior, Affective Neuroscience and Psychophysiology Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
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Xu Z, Hu J, Wang Y. Bilateral eye movements disrupt the involuntary perceptual representation of trauma-related memories. Behav Res Ther 2023; 165:104311. [PMID: 37037182 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104311] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2022] [Revised: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 04/07/2023] [Indexed: 04/12/2023]
Abstract
Bilateral eye movement (EM) is a critical component in eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. However, the role of bilateral EM in alleviating trauma-related symptoms is unclear. Here we hypothesize that bilateral EM selectively disrupts the perceptual representation of traumatic memories. We used the trauma film paradigm as an analog for trauma experience. Nonclinical participants viewed trauma films followed by a bilateral EM intervention or a static Fixation period as a control. Perceptual and semantic memories for the film were assessed with different measures. Results showed a significant decrease in perceptual memory recognition shortly after the EM intervention and subsequently in the frequency and vividness of film-related memory intrusions across one week, relative to the Fixation condition. The EM intervention did not affect the explicit recognition of semantic memories, suggesting a dissociation between perceptual and semantic memory disruption. Furthermore, the EM intervention effectively reduced psychophysiological affective responses, including the skin conductance response and pupil size, to film scenes and subjective affective ratings of film-related intrusions. Together, bilateral EMs effectively reduce the perceptual representation and affective response of trauma-related memories. Further theoretical developments are needed to elucidate the mechanism of bilateral EMs in trauma treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhenjie Xu
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, Zhejiang, China
| | - Jie Hu
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, Zhejiang, China
| | - Yingying Wang
- Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310028, Zhejiang, China.
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Sinvani RT, Sapir S. Sentence vs. Word Perception by Young Healthy Females: Toward a Better Understanding of Emotion in Spoken Language. Front Glob Womens Health 2022; 3:829114. [PMID: 35692948 PMCID: PMC9174644 DOI: 10.3389/fgwh.2022.829114] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/04/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Expression and perception of emotions by voice are fundamental for basic mental health stability. Since different languages interpret results differently, studies should be guided by the relationship between speech complexity and the emotional perception. The aim of our study was therefore to analyze the efficiency of speech stimuli, word vs. sentence, as it relates to the accuracy of four different categories of emotions: anger, sadness, happiness, and neutrality. To this end, a total of 2,235 audio clips were presented to 49 females, native Hebrew speakers, aged 20–30 years (M = 23.7; SD = 2.13). Participants were asked to judge audio utterances according to one of four emotional categories: anger, sadness, happiness, and neutrality. Simulated voice samples were consisting of words and meaningful sentences, provided by 15 healthy young females Hebrew native speakers. Generally, word vs. sentence was not originally accepted as a means of emotional recognition of voice; However, introducing a variety of speech utterances revealed a different perception. Thus, the emotional conveyance provided new, even higher precision to our findings: Anger emotions produced a higher impact to the single word (χ2 = 10.21, p < 0.01) as opposed to the sentence, while sadness was identified more accurately with a sentence (χ2 = 3.83, p = 0.05). Our findings resulted in a better understanding of how speech types can interpret perception, as a part of mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rachel-Tzofia Sinvani
- School of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
- *Correspondence: Rachel-Tzofia Sinvani
| | - Shimon Sapir
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
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Wagner AE, Nagels L, Toffanin P, Opie JM, Başkent D. Individual Variations in Effort: Assessing Pupillometry for the Hearing Impaired. Trends Hear 2019; 23:2331216519845596. [PMID: 31131729 PMCID: PMC6537294 DOI: 10.1177/2331216519845596] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/17/2018] [Revised: 03/19/2019] [Accepted: 03/25/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Assessing effort in speech comprehension for hearing-impaired (HI) listeners is important, as effortful processing of speech can limit their hearing rehabilitation. We examined the measure of pupil dilation in its capacity to accommodate the heterogeneity that is present within clinical populations by studying lexical access in users with sensorineural hearing loss, who perceive speech via cochlear implants (CIs). We compared the pupillary responses of 15 experienced CI users and 14 age-matched normal-hearing (NH) controls during auditory lexical decision. A growth curve analysis was applied to compare the responses between the groups. NH listeners showed a coherent pattern of pupil dilation that reflects the task demands of the experimental manipulation and a homogenous time course of dilation. CI listeners showed more variability in the morphology of pupil dilation curves, potentially reflecting variable sources of effort across individuals. In follow-up analyses, we examined how speech perception, a task that relies on multiple stages of perceptual analyses, poses multiple sources of increased effort for HI listeners, wherefore we might not be measuring the same source of effort for HI as for NH listeners. We argue that interindividual variability among HI listeners can be clinically meaningful in attesting not only the magnitude but also the locus of increased effort. The understanding of individual variations in effort requires experimental paradigms that (a) differentiate the task demands during speech comprehension, (b) capture pupil dilation in its time course per individual listeners, and (c) investigate the range of individual variability present within clinical and NH populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anita E. Wagner
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head
and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences,
School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
| | - Leanne Nagels
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head
and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
- Center for Language and Cognition
Groningen, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
| | - Paolo Toffanin
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head
and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
| | | | - Deniz Başkent
- Department of Otorhinolaryngology/Head
and Neck Surgery, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
- Graduate School of Medical Sciences,
School of Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Groningen, the
Netherlands
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Lausen A, Schacht A. Gender Differences in the Recognition of Vocal Emotions. Front Psychol 2018; 9:882. [PMID: 29922202 PMCID: PMC5996252 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00882] [Citation(s) in RCA: 32] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2018] [Accepted: 05/15/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The conflicting findings from the few studies conducted with regard to gender differences in the recognition of vocal expressions of emotion have left the exact nature of these differences unclear. Several investigators have argued that a comprehensive understanding of gender differences in vocal emotion recognition can only be achieved by replicating these studies while accounting for influential factors such as stimulus type, gender-balanced samples, number of encoders, decoders, and emotional categories. This study aimed to account for these factors by investigating whether emotion recognition from vocal expressions differs as a function of both listeners' and speakers' gender. A total of N = 290 participants were randomly and equally allocated to two groups. One group listened to words and pseudo-words, while the other group listened to sentences and affect bursts. Participants were asked to categorize the stimuli with respect to the expressed emotions in a fixed-choice response format. Overall, females were more accurate than males when decoding vocal emotions, however, when testing for specific emotions these differences were small in magnitude. Speakers' gender had a significant impact on how listeners' judged emotions from the voice. The group listening to words and pseudo-words had higher identification rates for emotions spoken by male than by female actors, whereas in the group listening to sentences and affect bursts the identification rates were higher when emotions were uttered by female than male actors. The mixed pattern for emotion-specific effects, however, indicates that, in the vocal channel, the reliability of emotion judgments is not systematically influenced by speakers' gender and the related stereotypes of emotional expressivity. Together, these results extend previous findings by showing effects of listeners' and speakers' gender on the recognition of vocal emotions. They stress the importance of distinguishing these factors to explain recognition ability in the processing of emotional prosody.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adi Lausen
- Department of Affective Neuroscience and Psychophysiology, Institute for Psychology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz Science "Primate Cognition", Goettingen, Germany
| | - Annekathrin Schacht
- Department of Affective Neuroscience and Psychophysiology, Institute for Psychology, University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany.,Leibniz Science "Primate Cognition", Goettingen, Germany
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